8.04.2007

Outings

There have been several times in the past few weeks when I've felt the irresistible urge to get out of the house with Kent, even if it's just for a quick trip to the grocery store. We've also gone to have lunch with Jack about once a week, which is really nice and gives him a chance to show off his son to his co-workers, who all ooh and ahh at Kent, even the men. Spending that much time inside, just staring at each other and doing the things moms and babies do, is sometimes overwhelming for both of us, so we need a break in our routine and a change of scenery most days. It's good for us, I think (and forces me to try to take a shower and put on real clothes).

This afternoon was pretty rough and led to a similar urge, as Kent was tired all day but couldn't figure out how to sleep for longer than half an hour at a time, and Jack and I were both nearing the end of our ropes. I came a lot closer, honestly... hormones are crazy and often make me cry. After yet another unsuccessful attempt at a collective nap, we decided that a nap in his infant carrier would be better than none at all, so we packed him up into the car and went to the mall for dinner and a stroll. He ended up sleeping for close to an hour while we ate at the cheesesteak place and walked around a little, and then he woke up and decided he wanted to nurse, so we did that, too (with his head under a blanket). Jack then carried him around to burp him, and after a few minutes of crying, Kent was appeased yet again, so Jack and I sat down on a comfy sofa in the middle of the mall and split a little bowl of mint chocolate Dippin' Dots. Yum. I fed him his half of the ice cream while he held Kent in his lap. On our way out of the mall, we stopped at the Foto booth, the kind where you squeeze in front of a tiny screen and get four different poses. Such fun! I had never done this before but had always wanted to with Jack, since the only time we ever tried was at the mall in Christiansburg, VA, and the booth politely took our $4 and then refused to do anything else. The experience had left me scarred, but luckily, this booth was not so two-faced. We got four great B&W pictures of the three of us, which I'll post here if Jack is successful at using the scanner at work on Monday.

Anyway, this $25 outing turned out to be a lovely end to what was otherwise a pretty trying day. The ups and downs of parenthood are pretty extreme. Enter with caution. =)